Emphasising the need for measures to improve road safety, the Leas-Cathaoirleach, Mr Liam Cosgrave, contrasted the level of fines often levied for speeding offences with those imposed for illegal parking.
Excessive speeding was contributing significantly to the road accident rate, he believed. But often prosecutions for such behaviour attracted only derisory fines, particularly when compared with the £65 clamping penalty for forgetting to feed a parking meter or for overstaying by a few minutes. Mr Cosgrave said a £100 fine for driving at 80 to 90 m.p.h. could not be reasonably equated with a £65 penalty for wrongful parking.
Outlining measures being taken to deal with the current delay in driving test appointments, the Environment and Local Government Minister of State, Mr Robert Molloy, said that at the end of last year there was an all-time record of 146,506 test applications. Eight new testers had been recruited and an additional eight were undergoing basic training. This would increase by 25 per cent the overall testing capacity.
The national average waiting period for a driving test was 31 weeks. It was recognised that the number of Irish drivers relying on provisional licences, at 24 per cent, was too high.